Attitudes Toward Poverty Show Dramatic Change — WSJ/NBC Poll

Americans’ attitudes toward poverty have shifted dramatically over the last two decades.

In 1995, Americans were twice as likely to believe poverty resulted from people not doing enough to help themselves out than to attribute it to external forces, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted in April that year. That helps explain why the then-new Republican majority in the House made welfare reform a top priority.

Fast forward 19 years, and those views have undergone a significant transformation. The latest Journal poll of 1,000 adults, conducted June 11-15, found Americans are now as likely to blame poverty on circumstances beyond people’s control than they are to believe the poor aren’t doing enough to dig themselves out of it, 46% to 44%.

Click to see more June WSJ/NBC poll graphics.

That shift has broad implications for policy makers at the federal, state and local level as they debate the future of social-welfare programs. These current views seem to run contrary to the recent focus on fiscal austerity, for example, and may pose a hurdle for those Republicans making overtures to rework welfare programs, including the food-stamp program and Medicaid.

While Americans of every political persuasion are less likely to blame poverty on the poor, the issue – like so much in American life – has become even more polarizing. Republicans are more inclined to say poverty results from circumstances beyond people’s control than they were in 1995, but the gap between Republicans and Democrats on the question has increased in the years since.

In 1995, 72% of Republicans and 50% of Democrats believed people weren’t doing enough to help themselves out of poverty. Now, 61% of Republicans and just 29% of Democrats hold that view, according to a survey conducted by Democrat Fred Yang and Republican Bill McInturff.

Independents, meanwhile, are now split on the question. In the mid-1990s, they were twice as likely to say people weren’t helping themselves than to blame external forces.

While the differences between Republicans and Democrats have expanded, views on poverty are less defined by race. In 1995, a quarter of white Americans felt poverty was caused by circumstances outside people’s control, compared with 42% of non-whites who held that view. Now, 44% of white Americans believe external forces cause poverty, compared with 50% for non-whites.

There are some slight generational differences in the current numbers. Back in the mid-1990s, there was little difference in how 18-year-olds and 65-year-olds viewed poverty. Now, people 65 and older are the only age group to believe people aren’t doing enough.

The recent recession may play a role in informing these views, but the unemployment rate today is only slightly higher than it was in April 1995, the last time the Journal asked this question. It was 5.8% in 1995, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Last month, it was 6.3%.

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